Can you believe it?!

Words cannot describe how I am feeling right now.  I came to New York praying to book one show, and a not likely goal of 3 shows (which would make for a successful first season) and I have just found out I have exceeded my goal! and have done 3 shows and have one today and tomorrow making me book 5 shows!  Lauren Moffatt, Suzanne Rae, and Ann Yee and the next 2 have to remained unnamed until they are over, but they ARE runway!  And the week is not even over, but I don't care if I book anymore, nothing can ruin my mood right now not even missing a chance to see Justin Bieber live on SNL!  My mom and I were planning to join the other mob of teenage girls waiting in the NEMO blizzard to get a chance to see the superstar/ my one true love ;) but my other true love, MY JOB, got in the way, but nope!  Im not upset in fact I couldn't be happier.  On top of all this I got to see my good friend Elizabeth!  Her and her mom came to NY fro her sweet 16 and I got to see her and get dinner!  SOOO nice to see a familiar face here in this big city!!  SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New friends and Bookings!!

6 castings today leaving me exhausted because I woke up only expecting one!  Came home around 7:00 to find out I booked 2 shows for tomorrow!!!!!!!  Which means I am one show away from my goal of 3 shows.  One of the shows I booked is one Ive had my eye on since we got in New York eeepppp!!  The second show tomorrow will be with one my new friends Jenna who is one of the few other girls who is also 15, so it will be lots of fun!  I also made a new friend Lenox from Georgia and she is 17 we found out we had the same casting schedule and spent the whole day together and then got tacos at their hotel!  We had a blast.  My first casting of the day was for a commercial, my first television casting ever, but I was auditioning for a non speaking role and let's just say it was extremly awkward haha I stepped in front of the camera and just smiled and they yelled action!  And Im like hold up, action for what?!  No one had told me what to do!!  And then they said to holed up my hands and flip them and then turn side ways...and that was it...so weird!  haha It would definitely be fun to get ( not only because of the pay)  but its a very popular hair care brand and I would love the experience, but my hopes aren't high.  Hopefully I can sleep tonight, probably not!  P.S we also had a trip to Dylans Candy Bar the day before... talk about a stomach ache!!!!  Also tried to get some school work done...not so successful 

we get lost a lot....

    Today I only had one casting (kinda thankful after yesterday) and unfortunately the client looked at me for MAYBE 30 seconds and then said I could go, bummer :(  Our ride there was kind of interesting.  Our plan was to take a taxi over there and then ride the subway on the way home.  Our taxi ride was fine until we came to a complete stop going on 10 minutes, meaning our pay rate was sky rocketing so we decided to get out and walk past the traffic and catch a new taxi.  But of course, right as we get out the line of yellow taxis started to move again, so we got back in our taxi and our driver was so nice and turned off the pay meter and we got to my casting in plenty of time.
     On the Bright side the location of the casting was in Soho, a great shopping area.  We planned to just stop at Bloomingdales in search of the perfect pair of leather pants, but then of course we saw Nordstrom rack and forever 21 and then topshop, Urban outfitters, Vince Camuto and we didn't make it to Bloomingdales until 6:00!! After 6 hours of "shopping" I walked away with one shirt and a new phone case....yeah my husband is gonna love me...I hate shopping, mom loveees it.  Oh, and the one shirt we did buy, I lost at Brandy Melville and then we went back to get it and the worker said someone already took it, but mom stepped and said, "can u at least check behind the counter?"  and in our luck the workers DID find it thankfully.
     We got lost on the way home and with the subways still down we were left with the only option of Taxi..oh! I forgot to mention yesterday that as we were searching for a taxi some guy in a black car pulled over and I warned my mom not to get in as he offered us a ride.  The previous day she did get in a random car >insert head slap here<  hahaha apparently Im the only one in the family cut out for city life.  Anywho...we had luck getting a taxi and he litteraly FLORED IT all the way to the apartment, I nearly asked to get out, it was seriously insane.
    For dinner, some chinese take out from Dukes.  I swear the workeres there must think we are absolutely crazy, we are in that place 3 times a day haha!  Thats all for now ~word

Busy day!

Woke up early to shower and head over to my first of 8 castings today along with a call back.  I was excited to have so many things to do today, turns out it was very stressful!  My first casting was a go-see for a book cover that I really wanted to get and hadn't been able to make it to the original date of it but they agreed to see me today, well turns out today was the casting for the boys (the main girls love interest) so I was surrounded by gorgeous guys!! One of which looked like Heath Ledger in the movie "10 things I hate about you" my fave chick flick!  Well, turns out the publishers only wanted a red head and thought I was ginger....which I sorta am, but only in sun light and they didn't believe me, even with photos right there, oh well I'm thinkin I didnt get that haha.  Next came a call back for a designer I was REALLY excited about even just going into my go-see for her the previous day.  I stayed in there a good hour trying on amazing outfits, one after another.  I think it went well but you just never know, my fingers are crossed!!  Then came castings, I thought they were going pretty well and then I had to wait in a TWO HOUR line (which also included hot male models, some of which had english accents;) the 2 hour line, putting me an hour and a half behind schedule, was not worth it because Im pretty sure they didn't like me.  I had a really different and fun casting later in the day at a hotel just for gay people...or excuse me, the first straight friendly gay hotel hahaha but it was probably my best casting yet!  The designer wanted me to do a "Cat woman" inspired walk down the runway and be very "theatrical" I had LOTS of fun doing that walk because I was tired of doing my boring runway walk.  That would be very fun to book!  Oh and no, the actual runway show is not at the gay hotel, just the casting, bummer?  I also got to see 2 familiar BMG faces at the casting which was so fun in a city where I know no one!  Unfortunately I couldn't make it to my last casting of the day because there was a water breakage shutting down the 2 subways I needed to take to this casting!  And to top it off it was during rush hour so it was IMPOSSIBLE to hale a taxi and way too far to walk in the freezing snow.  Not to mention being an hour and a half off schedule from my casting earlier in the day.  For lunch today, we didn't have much time so I grabbed a quick hot chocolate and salmon tartini and for dinner we were exhausted from leaving at 7AM and getting back in our apartment at 7PM so we got pizza from Cafe Duke yum!  Pepperoni, bacon, and green pepper! I am SO ready for bed, tomorrow doesnt look TOO busy which Im kinda actually happy about after today.  Some exciting opportunities in a few days though, looking forward to it!!!

Day 3 in NYC

    It was rainy all day and very gloomy.  I had to get up early to hop on the subway and go get my show cards from the BMG office before castings.  After I got those I came back to the apartment to change and get ready to go to my first casting of the day, when I get a call saying I booked a job (not a runway show) and it was going to be all day and I can't go to this other casting.  I was a little put off my this because I came here to do runway, not what the other job I booked was.  Although, I was getting paid and I wanted whatever I could get.  I was about to hop on the subway when I hear that this job I booked got canceled and I could go to the casting.  Rough start to the day!! The casting went well I thought, but you honestly never know wether or not you booked something, the casting director could tell you right there that you booked it and then the next day your agent could tell you that you didn't or the opposite, you could of thought they hated you, and then you find out you booked it.  You just have to wait it out.  I then went to the BMG office for about an hour meeting, and found out some possible cool news from my agent but nothing at all confirmed, but fingers crossed this gig works out!!  Iv'e been walking all day until now and my feet are killing me and I feel so dirty with a mix of rain, snow, cigarette smoke(literally every person on the street was smoking its disgusting), and all the germs from the subway I just want a shower!!!  About to head to a casual dinner and I'm going to wear denim on denim on denim with combat boots!  And tomorrow I am booked for a super cool job, cant wait to share!

Day 2 in NYC

Day 2 
all about food:  Sunday was very relaxed mostly lounging around the apartment during the day until I had my first Go-See at night.  I had an amazing lunch though!  Mom and I woke up pretty late so we just had a granola bar for breakfast, so by12:00 we were ready for lunch.  We walked down by central park which we didn't even know was just a few blocks from our apartment!  We saw a super cute sit down bakery that our friend recommended and decided to grab lunch there.  I had the most amazing smoked salmon tartini with avacado.  It was one of the most delicious things Ive ever eaten, and trust me Ive eaten ALOT of good food before.  For dinner, a delicious cup of clam chowder and a wedge salad with  applewood smoked bacon and blue cheese.  Mom had an AMAZING  steak rubbed with coffee that was cooked to perfection, it was divine!  Plus dinner was fun because I got to wear a new pair of heels that I thought were super cute and practical, and I was right about the cute part, but turns out they wern't so practical afterall, two nice cuts on the sides of my feet.  Darn!

Vocab: Just some modeling vocab for you, Casting: Your agent has decided to send you to a casting that any signed model can go to and the designer or casting director will look at all the models.  Go-See: When a client has requested to meet with you through your agent (very flattering!) Booking: You have booked a job, meaning you have been chosen and confirmed for a job.

Go-see: I had my first go-see on Sunday night for a client booking multiple shows during Fashion Week.  I walked in and there was a HUGE line of models and I was not expecting that because there was a 3 hour time frame you could go within.  This was my first casting in New York and I could tell all ready it was not like Chicago, girls had on dresses and leather pants and awesome studded shoes and I had on plain black pumps, jeans, and a black tank top..because that had been what I always wore in Chicago.  I was very intimidated by the other models, in Chicago theres not a huge selection of real high fashion models so it's easier for me to stand out, but being in New York for fashion week there are fashion models from all over the world and I could tell I didn't stand out next to the other girls.  Many of them had beautiful accents and looked very confident and of course they were very very skinny and tall, each of things making me feel less and less confident, I saw one girl with her eyes closed so she couldn't see the other girls or let them get in her head, so I decided that was probably a good idea.  Finally it was my turn to enter the room where the casting director was.  He already had m portfolio in his hands and said, "walk" but the room I was standing in was a little box of an office so I took two strides and was at the end of my "runway"  and I felt very awkward, but luckily he didn't even look up from my book.  He took a comp card and said, "thank you"  and I walked out.  My fingers are crossed that sense it was a go-see he was just double checking that I looked like my photos, anything can happen right?!  Probably not...haha at least I got my nerves out before the casting week really starts!

Day 1 NYC

SO much has happened today and we only just got here!  It's been crazy.  This will be long so I'll label each story so you can see which stand out to you.

Our Car Accident:
     Our trip through the airport was a BREEZE, our carry on's got on the plane easy and our 5 suitcases, the sizes of bodies, didnt get lost.  As we were driving to our apartment almost a block from our apartment, our driver asked my mom if she wanted to pay with cash or credit and she said credit.  So our driver reached down to get the credit card swiper thing, but instead of stopping the car to do this, he kept driving while not looking and of course we hit the car in front of us.  Our drivers car was busted up in the front pretty bad but the cab that he hit didn't have a dent and no one was hurt.  We would of walked to our apartment but we had SO many huge bags( I will post a pic below) I stayed in the car while the cab driver and our driver exchanged info.  Luckily they agreed to not call the police and we were on our way, but lets just say that was not a good start to the trip!

Our apartment: I'm not gonna talk too much about our apartment...It's nothing special, it's actually pretty dirty and gross and one of the bedrooms is full of a a really really bad stench of cigarette smoke, its unusable so mom and me will be sharing a bed.  It also lacks some color so I went to a flower shop in the middle of Times Square and bought some purple flowers, and then took the paper that they were wrapped in, and hung it on the wall :) just getting creative! <<will post photos below) I don't think you can do much better in New York though.  On the bright side, you walk out of our building and turn left and your 2 blocks from Times Square which is really fun!  And also our door men are super nice, so our apartment isn't so bad after all!

Mom should be a "dancer"?: Apparently I have a hot mama...Walking through Times Square today some men yelled at mom that she should go dance at the gentlemens club because her "Glasses are supa sharp and yo hur is spunky"  I'll leave that at that.

Subway: I had to give the subway system a try today because thats what Ill be riding back and forth to castings and jobs for 3 weeks.  I actually didn't mind taking the subway, I found it relaxing actually...is that weird?  Although, I was a little turned off by the rats crawling on the tracks as I waited.

I'm a tough cookie:  Being in New York I know you have to be really tough, lets be honest it is not the safest place, especially for a young girl.  I have a method of walking down the street...Take long strides and move your arms a lot, don't look down, squint and look forward, never walk in between people always go around.  And of course keep your hand on your purse.  I also fought for a seat at Starbucks today.  After walking for about an hour, I was freezing and exhausted and decided to go have some coffee cake at Starbucks.  It was packed, but I saw a guy leaving and waited by his seat making it pretty clear I was going to sit there.  Then, another guy came and stood by me staring at the seat, now usually I would be shy and just walk away and let him have it, but not today!  I looked at him and said, "Hey what do you think your doing!?"  (with a new york accent of course)  And yes, he did walk away and I sat there...don't mess with me when Im hungry and cold.

The accent:  Im obsessed with the New York accents and I just know Im gonna catch on to it within this week so I can only imagine what I'll sound like when I come home in 3 weeks...oh boy!

Currently:  And right now it is 7:00 and I am enjoying some tea and Teddy Grahms!!  Still deciding where to get dinner

P.S- I can't share what castings Im going to and what I have booked or photos, but lets just say before the week has not even started ITS GOING GOOD ;)